Seattle Mariners

Tonight’s Caught Looking, airing at 9 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, goes behind the scenes at last weekend’s Rays-Angels series, a four-game showdown that featured the Rays bouncing back in a big way on the heels of Felix Hernandez‘s perfect game that took place just a day before. Here’s a preview:

Rangers 12, Orioles 3: Five years ago last night Texas laid 30 runs on the Orioles. Not so bad last night, but still pretty ugly. Adrian Beltre smacked three dingers and drove in five. Sadly, Tommy Hunter was only allowed to give up a solo homer, two-run homer and a grand slam, falling just short…

Nationals 4, Braves 1: I have been arguing against a Stephen Strasburg shutdown for a while now, but allow me to say that if those dudes are really gonna do that, I wish they would have done it before last night. Strasburg struck out ten in six innings, allowing a single run and winning his…

Felix Hernandez didn’t make any sort of run at Johnny Vander Meer’s unbreakable record of back-to-back no-hitters Tuesday — he gave up a single to Jason Kipnis, the very first batter he faced — but he did limit the Indians to one run in 7 2/3 innings in a 4-1 victory. Meanwhile, the other Hernandez…

Everyone wants to put Felix Hernandez in pinstripes, but Felix Hernandez was on KJR in Seattle this morning and he said that M’s fans shouldn’t worry a thing about it. When asked about his next contract, Hernandez said: “… you guys [will] be happy, “I’m not going nowhere … I promise.” That part comes around…

Nationals 5, Braves 4: I suppose you can yell at Dan Uggla for messing up the play with the infield in and a runner on third in the 13th inning which allowed the winning run to score. But perhaps it’s also worth noting that the Braves played perhaps their most important game to date, in…

The Rays couldn’t manage so much as a hit or a walk Wednesday in Felix Hernandez‘s perfect game, but look at what they did to the Angels’ starters in four games since: Dan Haren: 3 2/3 IP, 7 H, 5 ER Jered Weaver: 3 IP, 8 H, 9 ER C.J. Wilson: 4 2/3 IP, 6…

The Yankees have Robinson Cano back from a sore neck Friday in the opener of a three-game series against the Red Sox, but Mark Teixeira is absent from the lineup due to an inflamed wrist, the LoHud Yankees Blog reports. Teixeira initially injured the wrist on July 29 and missed a couple of games. “It’s…

So, yeah, the response to Wednesday’s “Seattle should probably trade Felix Hernandez” column wasn’t entirely positive. I understand it was a case of raining on the parade, and I’m sorry about that. Still, it was an angle of the story that needed to be covered. Now that I’ve had a day to think more on…

I swear on a stack of Bibles that yesterday, while I was hanging around the NBC Sports Network studio watching Felix Hernandez polish off his perfect game, I said aloud that a New York paper was guaranteed to run the classic “the Yankees need to acquire King Felix” story today. I said that I’d bet…

The Double-A Jackson Generals — who play their home games in Jackson, Tennessee — were over 2,300 miles away from the mound at Seattle’s Safeco Field when Mariners ace Felix Hernandez finished off his perfect game against the Rays on Wednesday afternoon. But they celebrated like they were there: As Zach Sanders of FanGraphs correctly…

That’s pretty defensible, right. Felix Hernandez debuted at 19, and while he wasn’t great right away — in fact, he was pretty disappointing his first three years — he’s provided a ton of value to the Mariners in going 96-72 with a 3.17 ERA in 230 career starts to date. Baseball-reference WAR rates him as…

Cherish Wednesday’s perfect game, Mariners fans, and enjoy King Felix’s Seattle tenure while it lasts. Let’s face it: there’s a good chance Felix Hernandez will end his Mariners career never having won a postseason game. The Mariners are set to finish in last place in the AL West for a third straight season and for…

There wasn’t even a near-miss in this one. Felix Hernandez dominated the Rays from top to bottom on Wednesday, striking out 12 in a perfect game to beat Tampa Bay 1-0. It was his first career no-hitter and the first perfect game in Mariners history. As for the Rays, this is becoming old hat for…

6:02 p.m EDT update: Hernandez is perfect, getting a called third strike on Sean Rodriguez to end the ninth. It’s the first perfect game in Mariners history, and the Rays became the first team ever to be on the losing end of three perfect games. Hernandez ended up striking out five of the final six…

It’ll be a short-lived lead, but Max Scherzer fanned 10 Twins over seven shutout innings Wednesday to move past teammate Justin Verlander for the major league lead with 178 strikeouts. He’s gotten there in just 140 2/3 innings, while Verlander has racked up his 174 strikeouts in 175 2/3 innings. If Scherzer maintains his current…

It could be do-or-die time for Justin Smoak. With Mike Carp returning to the disabled list because of a strained groin, the Mariners brought Smoak back to the majors on Tuesday. He’ll likely play regularly at first base as the team tries to determine whether to include him in its plans for 2013. Smoak hit…

Johnny Pesky didn’t finish his major league career with anything close to Hall of Fame numbers, but who knows what might have happened if he didn’t miss his age 23, 24 and 25 seasons to serve in World War II? I’ll admit that I didn’t realize just how good Pesky was early on before checking…

Blue Jays 10, Yankees 7: Holy frijole, did you see Rajai Davis’ catch, robbing Casey McGehee of a home run in the seventh? The guy is like 5”9″ and the wall is like ten feet and he went Spud Webb on that bad boy. Or Spiderman. Or something. Just wow. Otherwise, the Jays beat the tar out…

Mariners center fielder Franklin Gutierrez can’t seem to catch a break. He has appeared in only 13 major-league games this year because of heel and head injuries, and it’s suddenly looking like he won’t make it back from his most recent disabled list stint before the conclusion of the 2012 regular season. According to Geoff…

Jesus Montero took the normally unbeatable Jered Weaver deep twice Sunday as the Mariners topped the Angels in Anaheim 4-1. Weaver entered the day having won nine straight starts. He was 8-0 with a 0.92 ERA at home this year and 15-1 with a 2.13 ERA overall. His only previous defeat came in Texas back…

Angels phenom Mike Trout is an American League MVP candidate primarily because of his gaudy offensive numbers, but he’s also been a standout defensively since his arrival near the end of April. The 21-year-old made another spectacular play on Saturday night in Anaheim, robbing his third home run of the season with a perfectly-timed leap…